self leveling floor leveler problems

[Quinn McCarthy]

I am trying to get a 11x14 room ready for 12" ceramic tile. There is a 1+" slope from one end to the other. I started putting floor leveler in 1 5 gallon bucket at a time. I didn't want to buy too much at 33.00 a bucket. It was called even flow. It comes with primer for between coats and says you can put it on to over an 1" thick. After 5 buckets I checked with a level to see how much and in what areas we needed for. As I was walking across the floor I notice it sounded hollow under where I was walking. After tapping lightly with a hammer I found a few more so I knocked those out until there were no more loose spots except for 1 which wouldn't crack. I ended up with about a 5 gallon pail of chips. So I put bucket number 6 down and after 4 days there are cracks already and a few loosespots.

What am I doing wrong? Am I going to knockit all out and start over?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Quinn

[Joe Pelonio]

What's the floor you are pouring it on? If bare conrete or wood, did you use their recommended primer? Was it over about 50F when you poured it?

I'm thinking either adhesion problems or weak subfloor causing movement prior to it setting up. Also, was it premixed, or you added water, and did you mix it well?

The stuff I've used was something like Level-X but similar, and it's not supposed to shrink or crack.

[Quinn McCarthy]

I am putting it on concrete floor. The surface is very sound. The temperature was over 50 degrees. It comes in a 5 gallon bucket and you add the listed amount and stir. We use 2 buckets and stir with a paddle on a drill so there are no clumps then mix together and mix a little more and pour. It said to put the primer on btween coats and we do that.

Now our Menards stopped carrying this brand and we bought some different stuff which is very similar from HD to finish the job. The last batch only cracked in a small area where it was thin. Where we pourd i the depression left by the breaking out of the loose stuff it looks pretty good yet.

Thanks

Quinn

[Joe Pelonio]

Quinn,

Sounds like you did everything exactly as you should have, maybe the stuff was a bad batch, glad you were able to get it done.